Bulgarian Clergy and Laity Urge Holy Synod to Defend UOC

SOFIA, BULGARIA — Clergy and lay members of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church have issued an open appeal to Patr. Daniel of Bulgaria and the Holy Synod, urging them to publicly defend the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) amid ongoing legal and political pressure in Ukraine.

According to the Bulgarian newspaper 24 Chasa, the signatories emphasized that this is not the first such appeal. They noted that in April 2023, more than 2,000 clergy and faithful supported a similar letter to the Holy Synod, and argued that the situation facing the UOC has become increasingly severe since that time.

The appeal highlights concerns over legal proceedings in Ukraine involving the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience and its efforts to liquidate the Kyiv Metropolia of the UOC. The authors of the letter warn that suppressing the UOC would amount to replacing the canonical Church with a state-supported religious structure. "If we allow our brothers and sisters to be betrayed through our silence, this apostasy will inevitably lead to tragic consequences for all of us," the letter states.

As reported by UOJ-Ukraine, the signatories also drew parallels between the current situation in Ukraine and both the schism experienced by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church during the 1990s and the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church during the early Soviet period. They further expressed concern for ethnic Bulgarian communities in Bessarabia who belong to the UOC, urging the Bulgarian Holy Synod to defend canonical order, freedom of conscience, and religious liberty.

Previously, the UOJ reported that the Romanian and Bulgarian primates joined the Ecumenical Patriarch on Imbros.